By Austin Ogwuda
…as he sets up Vision 2050 to drive Community Development
THE Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Epiphany Azinge (SAN) has inaugurated three Strategic Committees charged with the responsibility of driving development agenda for the Asaba community.
The Committees are – Asaba Vision 2050; Asaba Model Transportation and Asaba Communication.
Inaugurating the Committees during Asagba-in-Council (Exco) meeting on Tuesday, the Asagba charged them to immediately hit the ground running with the determination to successfully deliver on their respective mandates.
His words, “We need to see how we can accommodate the issue of transportation in Asaba. We are not saying that Keke (commercial motorcycle operators) is not good, but Asaba as a State capital and a budding tourist destination cannot survive with Keke alone.
”That is not possible; it is unthinkable and not acceptable. Let’s think of options. May be buses, sophisticated boats, cable car, among others.
“If the government cannot do it, we (Asaba community) will go for Community-Private partnership. The important thing is that we must diversify and nothing can stop us.
“For us”, he went on, this is a very important Committee. We have been expecting to see an improvement in the transportation system, but that doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. Already we have set up a Committee that will make input into our annual budgets. So whatever your Committee proposes will be passed on to that Committee for inclusion in the budget”.
To the Vision 2050 Committee, the Asagba said, “Let us visualize Asaba in 2050. What will it look like? Not what government will make it to be, but what we as a people will like in to be. That is not going to be political, but traditional, social, among others.
“So if you are able to put the vision of Asaba in the next 25 years in the right perspective, then we are sure that we will be on the right path for development and progression. It is going to be subjective in many ways, so don’t expect it to be objective because there is the possibility that we are not all going to agree on what we want it to be”.
On communication, the Asagba noted that no society, community or group could do without a good communication outlets, pointing out that easy flow of traditional information was key, but lacking in the community.
He suggested that having a Community Radio station, periodically published magazine and tabloid would not be out of place.
The monarch however remarked that though the assignment would outlive some of them, it should be on record that they started a path to where Asaba people would be in the next 25 years, for the community to gradually work towards getting there.
*Credit: GALLANT REPORTERS
